1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Device Management (DM), and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for providing a DM service using a relay device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to an increase in the type of and the number of terminals or devices carried by various users (e.g., a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) audio-layer 3 (MP3) player, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cell phone, etc.), and an increase in the functionality of such mobile devices, a network including the mobile devices may be formed in order to enable content sharing among devices owned by a user. Such a network formed among the personal mobile devices is called a Personal Area Network (PAN).
A PAN may be formed according to various communication schemes including Bluetooth, Wireless-Fidelity (WI-FI), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), etc. Recently, PANs based on Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) have entered into commercial use. All devices supporting an associated PAN communication scheme may participate in a PAN associated with the same communication scheme.
In order to remotely manage various firmwares, softwares, parameters, schedules, and Hard Ware (H/W) capabilities of devices that can participate in a PAN but cannot directly access an external network or do not have a DM client, a new networking environment has been developed, in which a device with a DM client is used as a relay device.
When a device supporting a DM service is used as a relay device, the relay device delivers a message from another device after establishing a remote DM session for a third device. In this way, the relay device forms a PAN with various devices centering on the relay device, in order for the various devices to receive a DM service through the relay device. However, there currently is no detailed proposal regarding the specific manner in which a plurality of devices and the relay device set a relay mode between them to provide a DM service and whether these devices can register and deregister in/from a DM server. Therefore, in order to expand the role of the relay device, there is a need for a method for allowing the relay device to set a relay mode and enable registration and deregistration in/from a DM server.